


smoke like rekindling souls

by TheSpaceCoyote



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emperor Armitage Hux, Enforcer Kylo Ren, Feelings Realization, M/M, Shotgunning, Smoking, Surprise Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 08:51:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18362690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSpaceCoyote/pseuds/TheSpaceCoyote
Summary: Kylo Ren worries for his emperor's health. Hux isn't pleased by his pestering.





	smoke like rekindling souls

**Author's Note:**

> I...I really like to write about shotgunning kink. So that's what happened here. I thought this was something Kylo would do, so hey.

“I thought you said you would quit, Hux.”

The emperor starts, though any minute motion remains hidden under the voluminous cover of his robes. He manages to keep the tapered end of the long cigarette holder clasped between his fingers, not losing the glowing red ash at the tip down below the balcony that looks out over the vast parade grounds. It’s a gift he purchased for himself—Chammian ivory, wreathed in the middle with ornate metal—upon the giddy realization of his life’s goal, though tonight is the first time he’s used it.

Hux realizes it would be bad for his image if the public ever saw him smoking, witnessed the vices of their new emperor. He wants to exude an air as close as godliness as possible, as to terminate all stirrings of rebellion in their infancy. Not one of cruelty, necessarily, but rather of indomitable _power_ , so he will never be forced to bow to anyone else ever again.

But he’s been itching for a smoke lately. Even with the Resistance crushed and his reign mostly clinched, he feels his stress has mounted, though it’s difficult to uncover the source. In reality, he probably has _less_ work now than he had as a general, but he feels more precarious, more in need of anything to take the edge off. And indeed, there’s something relaxing about watching the pale smoke that drifts between his lips, curling up into the air before disappearing into the midnight blue of the sky above.

However, any calm he’s lulled himself into has now been broken by Kylo Ren. Hux sighs, turning away from the balcony to look over at the knight, watching his booted feet as he walks across the balcony towards him, steps so heavy he expects the stones to shake.

“You’ve intruded into my quarters,” Hux states, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice but lacking the urge to stave Ren off. He braces one hand back against the banister, straightening his posture as the other man stops, the space between them just barely above acceptable.

“I haven’t seen you smoke in so long,” Ren folds his arms over his chest, eyebrows furrowed. “I’d hoped you’d stick to your word.”

Hux frowns sourly at at the obvious disapproval in Ren’s voice. _Really_? The belligerent, irrational Force-user is going to lecture him now? Now that Hux is _emperor_?

Absurd.

It isn’t that Hux doesn’t remember the last time Ren had caught him smoking—alone in his office aboard their old ship, collar to his uniform opened, bags reddened and heavy under his eyes—but he thought it’d been a one-off comment, something to say to interrupt the uneasy silence between them as Ren had born witness to the general’s most erratic, vulnerable state.

Hux rolls the cigarette holder between his fingertips, feeling the florid patterns, detailed in gold, along the shaft.

“One measly little smoke won’t kill me, Ren.” Hux purses his lips, taking a brief inhale of his cigarette and blowing a mouthful of smoke in the other man’s direction. “I think after all I’ve been through, I’ve earned it.”

Ren wrinkles his nose, unfurling one hand to pointedly wave away the air in front of him. Hux just barely resists the urge to roll his eyes.

“Is this the reason you’ve violated my privacy? Did you use your Force to sense what I was doing, and decided to valiantly step in and stop me from poisoning myself?” Hux chides, sweeping his other arm outwards. “And after this, surely you’ll haunt those reveling in my coronation, reminding them not to partake of too many sweets, yes?”

“Don’t be that hyperbolic.”

Hux snorts.

“With you, Ren, I’m not sure there’s such thing.”

“You’re emperor now,” Ren presses, daring to breach the respectable space between them. “If you want your rule to be long and fruitful, you will have to learn to take better care of yourself.”

Hux stiffens, the casual disdain in his eyes sharpening into more of a glare. He has never been healthy, not since he was a boy. It’s almost inevitable that his body will fail him long before his mind does, and Ren need not remind him of his own shortcomings. After all, what’s the purpose? _Ren_ is the one who’s thrown his allegiance in beside him, and if he wishes to undermine Hux he’s going to have to go for stronger stuff than a couple snide comments about his health.

“I don’t need you to police my vices. Stars above, Ren, you’ve been giving the title of Enforcer, not Imperial Nursemaid.”

Ren’s being quite presumptive, and it irks him. Hux doesn’t need to be told what to do like a rebellious child. Half of him considers impudently flicking the ash of his cigarette on Ren’s boots and disregard him entirely. Instead, to hammer home just how much he doesn’t care for the knight’s nagging, he looks Ren square in the eyes and brings the cigarette holder to his mouth, inhaling the spiced smoke as deeply as he can muster. He purses his lips, holding it in his throat for a moment, feeling it burn as his face practically glows in a smirk.

Hux doesn’t expect Ren to suddenly move in so close, but before the emperor can react he’s crowded him against the banister. Hux’s mind conjures up a quick reprimand, but before he can bring it to life, Ren leans in and with a little clumsiness, presses their lips together.

It’s been so long since they’ve kissed. Their encounters were few and furtive aboard the _Finalizer_ , any physical pleasures stolen in the security of either of their quarters, concealed due to fear of both others and themselves. Neither have spoken on the precise nature of their relationship, not since the war’s upswing crawled into its inevitable denouement, not since Hux has found himself seated at the top of a new galactic empire, bolstered on the shoulders of a man he never thought would want anything but his death.

And now that man is kissing him, on the balcony of his new palace, clad in inky black robes that Hux must admit contrast poetically with his own deceitful white—forever tailored as his shadow, dealing death to his enemies in his stead and proving the strength of his reign to the galaxy. Seeping in around him as effortlessly as the fluid night, filling in those gaps Hux has never found the courage to patch over himself.

Hux exhales in surprise as Ren parts his lips, inadvertently filling the channel between their mouths with the retained smoke. Miraculously he doesn’t choke, merely _breathes_ as he lets Kylo shift the air, the _fire_ from Hux’s lungs into his own. The emperor flutters his eyelids half-closed, suddenly lazy from the smoke and the motion of Ren’s mouth against his own. _Wanting_ to drink from the stained lips and parched tongue, to partake of Hux despite the innumerable flaws that mar him, even as the god-emperor of the extant galaxy. It’s strange—despite his earlier objection, Ren still willingly shares the poison inside of Hux, lifting the weight from his body, the ashy film plastered to the pinkest, most vulnerable pleura inhis being.

Hux’s fingers grow slack, and the cigarette holder falls from his hand, tinkling against the balcony. He reaches over Ren shoulder, enveloping his now free grasp in the sable curls of his hair. This close, Hux can even smell him—a comforting musk, far more appealing than the acrid scent of smoke.

Finally, their lips part, just when Hux feels like his lungs might burst. He gasps, eyes falling back completely open, now watering slightly at the edges. He feels a little light-headed, but as his hand lifts to hold onto the other man's cape, Ren reaches out to grasp it at the wrist, strength flexing through his fingers. They’re so close, close enough that Hux should protest as he feels his lower back dig into the banister behind him.

“Every time you think you need to smoke,” Ren exhales, wispy tendrils curling up from the corners of his mouth to make him look like some ancient, mystical presence, or a statue burning incense, “we will do this instead, until you no longer feel the urge.”

Hux almost thinks to reprimand Ren, for presuming he would agree to his proposal following a single kiss. But his lips still tingle from the brush with Ren’s warmth, and his cigarette already lays dashed and extinguished against the ground. He’s craving _something_ , to cradle close and catch between his teeth, and if his dear knight is offering, who is Hux to refuse?

“It may be difficult to completely break a habit,” He murmurs, admiring how long Ren’s hair has grown since last he’s drifted his fingers through it, “are you certain you’re up to the task?”

Hux doesn’t flinch, not when Ren leans in to rest their foreheads together, still smelling intense and animalic beneath the pall of smoke as it gradually vanishes into the cool night air.

“I think I can handle it, my emperor,” Ren says, and dips to kiss Hux once again.

**Author's Note:**

> Jury's still out on how good kisses from Kylo Ren are for your health. 
> 
> Hit me up on [Tumblr](http://thethespacecoyote.tumblr.com) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/heir_of_breath7/).


End file.
